Pirates can set sail to FSU Panama City

PSC students now have direct connection to FSU

By Jay Phillips

An articulation agreement was signed on Oct 24 by Pensacola State College’s (PSC) President, Dr. Edward Meadows, and Florida State University (FSU) Panama City and College of Applied Sciences’ Dean, Randy Hanna in the Bartfield Administration Building’s Trustees Conference Room. Thanks to this agreement, the two schools will experience much more cohesion.

This agreement ensures a lot of new resources for students at PSC and FSU Panama City, such as making transition from PSC to FSU Panama City much easier. One of the biggest reasons the transition will be easier is the addition of an FSU Panama City advisor to the Pensacola Campus. This advisor will be in the advising building Tuesdays from 10:30 A.M. through 12 P.M. and 1 P.M. through 2:15 P.M.

The advisor will help PSC students transfer to FSU Panama City by setting up a direct connection between the two schools, on the student’s behalf.

Those who plan on attending FSU Panama City will benefit from this direct connection thanks to already being integrated into FSU Panama City’s system long before they arrive and by not having to wait for an acceptance letter.

This will equate to less waiting, phone calls and applications on the student side of the transfer.

This agreement will also help current PSC students who plan on transferring by making sure they are on the right course-track while at PSC. The students who sign into this agreement will know they are on the way to earning their degree from FSU as long as they complete the course load given to them by their advisor, instead of just taking whatever the general studies course-track advises.

“The students won’t have to walk around the curriculum. So, the students won’t be using their credit hours to take excess hours that won’t count for them.” Hanna continued, “Now we can lay out for those students, from day one, exactly what is needed so they can finish in the quickest possible time.”

The new advisor will also help students who have transferred to FSU Panama City stay in touch with PSC, which will play a crucial role thanks to the articulation agreement’s impact which now allows for PSC to be able to take part in crediting students with reverse transfers.

“Reverse transfers are an important part of this agreement because it means that if a student is to leave Pensacola State College [for FSU Panama City] before earning their associate’s degree and enroll in classes at Florida State University Panama City that Florida State University will track their work and let for us so that we can award that student with their associate’s degree once they’ve earned it,” said Meadows.

PSC’s President, Dr. Edward Meadows and FSU Panama City’s Dean, Dr. Randy Hanna, signed an articulation agreement that will provide much more cohesion between the two schools on October 24 in the Bartfield Administration building.

This will be a huge boost to both schools as FSU Panama City does not offer any types of associate’s degrees.

“This allows students who are ready to attend FSU Panama City before they have fully earned their associate’s degree from PSC to go ahead and do so, and for PSC to still award the degree to them based on the work they’ve done at FSU Panama City,” explained PSC’s Vice President Tom Gilliam.

In other words, the direct channel will allow both schools to share the student’s records with one another, even after the student has left PSC. Not only will this make for a smoother transition from PSC to FSU Panama City, thanks to the shared records allowing PSC students to already be on track for FSU Panama City and apart of their system, but it allows FSU to share information back with PSC once the student has left.

Reverse transfers could allow students to get a head start on working in their field or obtaining other jobs to help them pay for expenses. In addition to taking the burden off students who need their associate’s degree but are ready to attend FSU Panama City by giving them the ability to stay at FSU Panama City and still earn their associate’s degree.

If interested in getting a closer look at the new program, head down to the PSC advising center located in Building Five on the Pensacola Campus, Tuesdays from 10:30 A.M. through 12 P.M. and 1 P.M. through 2:15 P.M.